IN FRANCE HALF OF THE MEDECINES ON THE MARKET ARE USELESS OR EVEN DANGEROUS. TIME TO THINK OF THE PATIENT AND NOT OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES' PROFIT
Juvenal’s famous sentence : It is to be prayedthat the mind be sound in a sound body, seemsto be an unattainable ideal at the time of modern scientific medicine.Hippocrates, father of medicine, used to say in the 5th century BC : Ido not treat an illness, I treat a patient.Modern occidental medicine has forgotten the patient to the benefitof the illness. Hence the ever increasing number of drugs bringing huge profitsto the pharmaceutical companies quoted on the Stock Exchange. The modernoccidental world has replaced the good of mankind by the greed and cupidity ofthe shareholders. Modern medicine is no longer ruled by Hippocratic altruism,humanism and integrity, but under the cover of science by a shamelessmatérialism. Science should be at the service of man, not man subservient tothe dictates of a greedy scientific communauty supported by publicity.
One of the most obvious example is the scandalous case ofthe Mediator produced by the Servier laboratories. This appetite suppressantwas given to the patients by unscrupulous doctors more eager to encourage themto medecine dependency than to foster health in teaching them a mental andphysical hygiene and discipline of life. The French professor Philippe Evendeclared on the Europe I radio on the 4th of January 2011 that nearly half ofthe 5000 medicines now available in France were of no use and potentiallydangerous. On the 31st of January2011, the French agency for the security of health and drugs, Afssaps,published a list of 77 dangerous medicines, which are reembursed by the FrenchNational Health, Sécurité Sociale. It is a heavy cost to pay. Mediator, nowbanned, was reembursed for 33 years.
It is obvious that a new concept of patients andillnesses has to be found by the medical profession. Except in the case ofserious illnesss, the dependency on expensive drugs must be discouraged infavour of a more responsible way of life. Preventive and palliative therapiesshould be preferred by the practitioner, instead of heavy intrusive therapies.Without denying the undoubtedly beneficial scientific progress, alternative andnatural therapies which optimizehealth without danger should be considered in a new way and encouraged.
Exxample comes from the East. The ancient Indianmedicine, Ayurveda, is the scienceof the life force. It origins goback to the beginning of the world, it is a revealed, eternal science. Itsteaching is based on the Veda, altogether a sacred knowledge, and a vision. For a long time it was transmitted orally frombrahman to disciple in the great philosophical tradition of Vedism, Hindouismand Buddhism. Between 1800 and1500 BC it was written down in the sanskrit texts of the Veda. It advocates a holistic conception of man and ofthe world, man the microcosm is the reflection of the universe, the macrocosm:I am made of the Universe, and the Universe is made of me. Thus harmony must reign in man and around him in aworld he respects and reveres. In that sense Vedic humanism has the sameprecepts and goals as modern ecology. Illness comes from a fundamentalinbalance between the three humors, or elemental energies : Vatta,Pitta et Kapha, resting on the four elements Air, Earth, Water andFire in association. A fifth element is added : Spirit. According to the Veda, the body attunes itself to the psycheand the psyche to the body. Healthand well-being rests on this alliance and balance of body and mind. Itexpresses itself in a search for happiness based on the dynamic principle ofthe constant evolution of the world, present also in man and in his relation tothe world. Yoga in all its aspects is the outer expression of this philosophy.The therapies used are dietetics, the use of medicinal herbs and minerals, acupunctureand massages with essential oils in order to restore the balance of energies inthe body and the psyche, and the psychotherapeutic use of sound and of thevoice. Natural modern medicine is derived from these practices.
Traditional chinese medicine is also based on the idea ofan elemental energy, the Qi, used in the Chinese gymnastic QiQuong. Medecines are based on herbsand minerals. Chinese massage is better know in Occident under its Japaneseversion of Shiatsu.Acupuntureis praticed in conjonction with moxibustion, the burning of a herb, inparticular mugwort, in order to stimulate the free flow of energy. Acupunturewas already used in India and Ancient Egypt thousand years ago. It is kown inEurope since the 18th century, and practiced since the 19th century,paradoxically at the time when the Emperor banned it from China. Mao Tse-Tungfought it at first, his Marxist regime did not see in a good light a therapybased on the Tao. Howeverhe came to recognize the good effects of accupuncture on the nation’s health,and its practice was allowed again. By the use of fine needles placed onstrategic points on meridians, it is possible to manipule the Qiin the human body. Chinese acupuncture is ruled by thesame philosophical concept as the Indian idea of man and his place in theuniverse : the microsom mirrors the macrocosm, there are 12 meridians, and365 strategic points. It does seem that the effectiveness of orientalmedecines, whether Hindu, Taoist or Buddhist, rests on a cosmology in which manis altogether an actor and an image. The beneficial effect of acupuncture iswell recognized in the West and many hospitals use it to complement Westernmedicine. Its long humanist and therapeutic tradition has been recognized byUNESCO. It is now registered as part of the intangible cultural heritage ofhumanity.
At the time when these orientalpractices are been officially recognized and acknowledged for their beneficialeffects, modern Western medicine would do well to recall its own roots andtraditions. Its total absorption in science and technology has eradicated allother considerations since the 19th century and the positivism of the Frenchphilosopher Auguste Comte. Already in the 13th century the experimental methodwas advocated by the English monk Roger Bacon, then in the 17th century by theFrench phlosophers, René Descartes et Blaise Pascal. In the 19th century theFrench doctor Claude Bernard made it triumph in Western medicine, to thedetriment of all metaphysical considerations. Auguste Comte had been under theinfluence of his master, the Comte de Saint-Simon, a French philosopher andeconomist whose thought was based on Isaac Newton’s scientific discoveries ongravitation. Saint-Simon replaced metaphysics and spirituality by the concept ofa universal gravitation which reflected Copernician revolution and heliocentrism, a notion already existing inthe Indian Vedic texts and in Ancient Greece. For the sake of humanism it hasto be regretted that Saint-Simon has so worshipped science to the detriment ofspirituality. He is the worthy heir of the Siècle des Lumières, of Diderot’s naturalism, of Voltaire’s atheismwhich both fostered on the Cult of Reason. With Robespierre it grew into thecult of a Supreme Being, an abstract concept. By banishing the metaphysical andspiritual dimension, mankind was deprived of his unique destiny. The Cult ofthe Supreme Being gave primacy to civic and social issues. The humanitarianaction in the abolition of slavery by the Convention government in an act in1794 must be praised.
Man’s alienation from his soul, and thus from that of theentire universe in his environment, is the cause of all ills of modernsociety. All humanism hasdisappeared from its science and technology worshipping materialism. In medicinethis materialistic ceonception of the world, further enhanced by the IndustrialRevolution, was counteracted in1796 by Samuel Hahnemann’s more holistic vision in his discovery and creationof homeopathy. Hahnemann, like Hippocrates, places the patient at the centre ofthe therapy. Homeopathy is based on the concept of similarity. The patients andtheir sympthoms are repertoried in fonction of their similarity to a vegetal,mineral or animal substance. They are then treated with an infinitesimal dose ofthe substance diluted through a dynamic process which adds to its potency. Theglobal approach to the patient renders homeopathy particularly effective inpsychosomatic illnesses. In renforcing the immune system it also prevents fromfurther physiological or psychological troubles becoming chronic. It also actsin prevention since the interdependency of body and mind is respected.Homeopathy is well adapted to children ailments, avoiding the overuse ofantibiotics and antiinflammatory. It is also very effective in cases ofallergies in a world increasingly polluted, as in chronic, degenerative andnervous illnesses. It is used with great success in veterinary care. Themedicines cost little, and have no after-effects, unlike chemical medication.In London, the Royal Homepathic Hospotal, now The Royal London Hospital forIntegrated Medicine, was created in 1849 by Doctor Frederick Foster Quin, astudent of Samuel Hahnemann. He had been the doctor of Prince Leopold, PrinceAlbert’s father. These royal connections ensured the renown of the Hospitalfrom the very beginning. Although it was always open to the local Sohocraftsmen and workers and registered a high level of succes in the choleraepidemic of 1854. A recent discovery of archive records dating from 18989 to1923 gives a precious testimony on cases history and the effectiveness ofhomeopathy. The hospital enjoys Royal Patronage since the interest shown inhomeopathy by the Duke of York, later King Georges VI. The Queen and all herfamily have homeopathic doctors. Despite the scepticism and opposition of thescientific communauty, other homeopathic hospitals were opened in Glasgow,Liverpool, Bristol and Tunbridge Wells, under the National Health Service. Atits creation in 1946, the Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan had assured the coverof homeopathic treatment in hospitals.
Western pharmacopea is issued from the same vegetal andmineral sources as homeopathy, the first remedies were originally medecinalherbs. The ancient Greeks, heirs of Hippocrates’ art since the 5th century BC,passed on their knowledge to Rome. Modern medicine is still ruled byHippocratic éthics and professional discipline. Just as oriental medicine,Greek medicine was based on the cosmological correspondence existing betweenthe universal macrocosm and the human microcosm. The four elements :Water, Earth, Air and Fire determined the four humors caracteristic of the 4temperaments : lymphatic, melancoly, sanguine, choleric. It was primarilya palliative medicine. By chanelling the healing powers of nature with a sounddiet including fruit and vegetables in season, exercise and a healthilybalanced way of life, it also acted in prevention. All these aspects can befound in modern naturopathy. Atthe time of increased danger ofextensive polllution, the respect of the laws of nature in the patient and inthe environment have never been as urgent. It muste be better to use naturalremedies based on medicinal herbs than expensive chemical ones which poison thepatient and pollute the environment.
This tradition of medicinal herbs is an old Celtic one.In the 1est century AD the Greek doctor and botanist Dioscoridis mentioned theart and knowledge of the Druids and wrote down the Celtic names of medicinalplants in his treatise. So did the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder in his NaturalHistory, and a century later theNorth African writer Apuleius. The Celts held trees in particular veneration asa symbol of life and knowledge. In France a school of natural medicine existedat Bordeaux and one of his most eminent doctors, Marcellus Empiricus, becamethe personal physician of the emperor Theodosius the Great in the 4th centuryAD. This science endured for centuries in the craft of the herbalist,recognized officially and sanctionned in France by a diploma in 1321. It wasunfortunately abolished by the Vichy government in 1941.
It would seem that a return to more natural therapies iscalled for at the time when longevity is increasing, when the economic crisisthreatens the social system, and when industries of all sorts, includingpharmaceutical and nuclear ones, pollute the planet. Society as a whole needs to become aware of the need fortherapies more respectful of man and his environment. An evolution is under waysince the official recognition of the herbalist diploma was put to the questionin writing by the Socialist Senator Ronan Kerdraon, from the Côtes d’Armor inBrittany, on the 17th of March 2011, N. 17712, page 631.
Mr. Ronan Kerdraon calls to the attention of theMinister of Education the absence of any diploma leading to officialrecognition of the craft of herbalist…Several associations call for the renewalof this diploma abolished by the Vichy regime. And many students wish to obtainan official training for the trade of herbalist. The diploma in pharmacy doesnot prepare adequately for this discipline.The official recognition of thediploma would also enable many citizens anxious to use alternative remedies togain access to less agressive therapies than chemical drugs. In view of suchdemand and taking into consideration the number of commercial names producingherbal remedies without any proper knowledge of their properties, it would seemessential to prepare specialist herbalists in order to better control thisactivity. Furthermore to develop herbal treatments would allow them to be usedin conjonction with traditional chemical drugs and thus reduce the NationalHealth deficit. In the light of the above, we ask the Minister to take intoconsideration the possibility of reinstating the Herbalists diploma. When oriental shops are increasingly offeringunknown herbs from faraway countries, it would seem more sensible, as in food,to consume local herbs, whose properties are adapted to the climate and westerntemperament.
For the good of all, the Government must take intoaccount the citizens’desire to assuming their own health more responsibly, andgive them the adminstrative and legal means to do so. The government can alsocontribute to a better education of the public taste and awareness in diet inencouraging natural biological agriculture. And the sale locally of thesehome-grown products ensure maximum nutrional value, instead of importingrefrigerated products from faraway countries, low on vitamins and high ontransport costs. An information campaign should be undertaken to encouragemothers and housewives to cook traditional dishes based on naturally home-grownfresh products. It is a health-giving practice which also help to transmit acultural tradition. Cooking lessons and good-housekeeping could be organized inprimary and secondary schools. To encourage a return to natural remedieslessons on botanic and elementary notions of herbalism should be given. It isbetter to drink a lime blossom tea with a spoonful of honey than to take somesleeping pills. Children would thus learn to respect nature and preserve it,the goal of ecology. One could also think of giving first-aid lessons usingtraditional remedies for the small accidents of life, which would ligthen theheavy task of doctors andemergency services. With the advice of the chemist and herbalist, in case of aminor fall and shock, a homeopathic dose of arnica taken orally and a pad ofthe tincture applied externally, can prevent a visit to the doctor.
It is up to the Government to show willingness inencouraging a greater independence from heavy chemical drugs. Public healthmust no longer be considered as an industry. Pharmaceutical companies are nowrelocating their laboratories in developping countries polluting theirenvironment. All lobying from these large groups must be forbidden by law, andthey must no longer be quoted on the Stock Exchange. This speculative practiceis amoral and goes against the principles of the Hippocratic oath. Furthermoreit is the Govenment’s duty not only to ensure the ethics of the medical andpharmaceutical professions, but to provide as far as can possible be done, ahealthy environment, free from industrial pollution, including nuclear one.Only at this price will public health be restored. It is now threatened bythese modern evils.
MONIQUE RICCARDI-CUBITT
NB. Since the age of 21 the author practices yoga in itsphysical and mental aspects, and uses homeopathy and acupuncture to healherself. She has also used Shiatsu massage, aromatherapy, Ayurvedic medicineand the Alexander technique. In London, she was with her husband, a patient ofthe famous naturopathic doctor, Dr. Gordon Latto, president of the VegetarianSociety for many years. His methodused dietetics, massage, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, phytotherapy with a strictmental and physical regimen of life. In using these various therapies theauthor was able to lengthen her husband’s life by many years. He had sufferedfrom early family traumas, prison of war and heavy chemical treatments as wellas electrochocs in order to control his chronic manic depression.